Triptych of Time
by Inea Sako
Summary: triptych: a work consisting of three related pieces of art. Pieces of Time. Tenth Doctor X Rose Tyler. NO FLAMES PLEASE
1. Things That Are

Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, do you think I would merely be sitting here writing fanfiction?

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Chapter One: Things That Were

She still has nightmares about it sometimes. Him leaving her behind. She still sees Emergency Program One. His big-nosed, big-eared old face telling her he was dead, or about to be

She dreams of his face. His not rude, not ginger face staring at the wall between them. She could almost feel the warmth of his hand seeping through. Tears running down both their faces.

She spends such a large amount of time in the other world just staring off into space. She'll turn around thinking she saw him or the TARDIS in the corner of her eyes. But it's never real.

When she heard of Dålig Ulv Stranden, she knew she had to go there. And she did. She saw his face, heard his voice, and it was better, for a little while. But she never was quite the same.

She's not sure exactly how she gained the ability to travel between worlds, but the first time she does, she knows it's important. So she begins to plan. She sends messages whenever she can. Messages throughout time and space. They somehow remind her of something she can't remember.

When she sees him again while fighting the Daleks, she wonders why it's always the Daleks that pull them together and tear them apart.

When the Earth is saved and he takes her and his other self back to Dålig Ulv Stranden, her heart is bruised again. But with the other him there, she hopes it will learn to heal.

The last time she saw him, the real him, the original, was in a dream. They're just sitting in the TARDIS, talking, laughing, smiling. He flickers, just for an instant, and she asks what's wrong. He merely smiles. "Thank you," he says, "Rose Tyler you were fantastic." She wakes up with the memory of the smile on his face.

When she sees the good morning smile on his other face, time, she thinks, has begun to heal her after all.

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	2. Things That Were

Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, do you think I would merely be sitting here writing fanfiction?

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Chapter Two: Things That Are

In his dreams he's still so terrified of losing her. He remembers the times he thought he did. Van Staaten's vaults, the Gamestation, Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. And he remembers the one horrible time when he lost her for real.

Often he wishes that she.... but if wishes were fishes, they still wouldn't bring her back.

She brought him back from the brink, the breaking point. He ought to thank her for that, but he never could use the right words.

When he met Martha and Donna, they helped, they truly did. But even they weren't the same as her.

He sees her face sometimes. Out of the corner of his eyes. But she's never real, and even these sightings have gone away.

In his dreams, he remembers the fire in her eyes on Satellite 5. Her toothy smile on New Earth. The light in her eyes on Woman Wept.

He had never even hoped she could come back, he knew she couldn't. But she did. Crossing the Void to save him and everyone. Bad Wolf all over again.

He knew she couldn't stay. So when the time came, he sent her back with his human self and walked away.

He never really forgot about her. She was a bright star even when the entire universe went dark. When the end of time had come and Wilf had knocked four times, he still remembered her.

He dreamt once, right before the end, that they were together again in the TARDIS, just like old times. And he finally said it. "Thank you. Rose Tyler, you were fantastic."

He hopes that, even in the new body to come, he will still remember her.

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	3. Things That Might Have Been

Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, do you think I would merely be sitting here writing fanfiction?

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Chapter Three: Things That Might Have Been

She always knew they would come together. He fiery Doctor and her pink and gold human. From the first time she heard the patterns of his thoughts to when he left his planet for good.

She waited. She knew their paths would entwine and her human would fix their Doctor's broken hearts.

She could hear the song, woven throughout time, calling her ever closer to Bad Wolf, her physical incarnation, placed in the only person that ever really mattered to both ship and pilot.

When he left the human the first time, she gave him a nudge to make him turn his head and see. He had to see that this little human with her pink and gold was important. And he did.

She watched as the loom of time wound this ship and her tiny, but ever so important, crew closer and closer to the coming of Bad Wolf.

When the storm had passed, and the Time War ended, she knew there was more to come. There always was. And when her little pink and gold human was gone, locked away for her own safety, the ship comforted her Doctor. His grief was hers.

The other companions came and gone. They were well enough, in their own way, but not the same.

The Ood said the Doctor's song was ending. She can hear it even now, winding down to its glorious ending.

The final strains are echoing. She knows that her Rose and her Doctor will never meet again, except for one final time. So she gives them both a dream. Her final gift to the pair that was Rose Tyler and the Doctor.

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